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Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction drives business results.

It sounds simple, but it’s true. Numerous studies have shown that satisfied customers are more loyal, more likely to buy your product, more willing to recommend it to others. Satisfied customers directly impact your bottom line.

The Dangers of Poor Measurement

Even so, customer satisfaction is an often-maligned metric. Companies sometimes have trouble linking their customer satisfaction metrics to concrete financial results. While everyone knows that customer satisfaction is critical for business success, many organizations don’t measure it using a scientific, credible process.

In a nutshell, many companies ask the wrong questions or ask too many questions. Or get feedback from too few or too many customers. And they may not be the right customers – those who are truly representative of their business.

Do organizations measure satisfaction with a scientific and consistent methodology that yields repeatable results? Do they use a predictive system of metrics or a basic survey tool? The list of challenges to measuring customer satisfaction goes on and on. Click here to read 8 Pitfalls To Avoid When Measuring Customer Satisfaction.

Customer Satisfaction Is A Predictor of Financial Performance

Measured the right way, customer satisfaction is a leading indictor of a company’s financial performance. Managed scientifically using a proven, standard metric, customer satisfaction drives loyalty, profitability and growth. The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ASCI) is one of the best-in-breed solutions for customer satisfaction measurement that is tied directly to financial performance.

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The American Customer Satisfaction Index

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is the leading national indicator of customer satisfaction with goods and services in the U.S. economy and the only cross-industry methodology that links customer satisfaction to financial performance. The ACSI has more than 12 years of empirical evidence supporting the relationship between customer satisfaction scores and key financial metrics such as stock price and cash flow.

The ACSI is a:

• Credible Leading Econometric Indicator: Produced by the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business and published quarterly in leading news and business publications. For 12+ years, the ACSI has measured leading companies across industries comprising more than half of the U.S. economy.
• Gold Standard of Measurement: Academic research and literature has attested to the value of the ACSI in measuring customer satisfaction and predicting business success.
• Critical Web Metric: Hundreds of websites use the ACSI to measure customer satisfaction as a performance metric, business improvement tool and benchmark.

How the ACSI Model Works

The ACSI is a sophisticated econometric model that quantifies the linkages between elements that drive customer satisfaction, overall satisfaction and financial behavior. The diagram below provides an overview of the linkages between satisfaction drivers (in blue) and overall satisfaction and customer behaviors (in green).



On the web, the ACSI methodology can be used to isolate specific satisfaction drivers, identify their relative influence on overall satisfaction and, in turn, on future behaviors. The diagram below shows the web-based model, with specific aspects of the website experience in purple, driving overall customer satisfaction and in turn, future customer behavior in terms of loyalty (return visits, purchase similar merchandise from the company next time), future purchase (online and offline) and word-of-mouth recommendation:

For More Information about the ACSI and its benefits, see links below:

• Proven History: For 12+ years, the ACSI has proven to be a leading indicator of growth and financial performance
• Financial Results: Recent research proves that a stock portfolio based on companies with strong customer satisfaction outperforms the industry
• Comparative Benchmarks: Benchmark your performance against leading industries and organizations measured by the ACSI and by ForeSee Results (for online business)
• See what others have to say about the power of the American Customer Satisfaction Index methodology.